The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650, Katie and I. Amy Demboski. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Good morning on this glorious Friday. It is January 24th. Current time is 6.06 a.m. Hopefully everybody has had a great week and we are off to a... to an awesome weekend I will tell you depending on where you are it is very very icy um especially when it comes to parking lots sidewalks that type of thing man yesterday i had to go out a couple times and it seems like the roads were fine they were just wet and temperatures right now are relatively
Mild. I'm getting 41 for Kenai, 38 out here in Palmer. How's Anchorage's... Oh, we have blown you away. We are the tropics here in Anchorage right now. 46 degrees. holy buckets oh yeah 46 degrees most of the main roads are actually almost dry because we also have about a seven to ten mile an hour wind um so especially out on the um like the area by the dump and stuff like that the landfill it's got some solid wind but most of the
roads the main roads and anchorage now are pretty close to dry all your side streets and everything though yeah no those are still glazed eyes so don't don't be out there messing around on those you're going to get hurt and sidewalks around anchorage are in horrible condition
Wow. Well, you know, the Kenai actually has a flood watch in effect right now, believe it or not. I believe it. Yeah, so it says right now, if you're in the Kenai, expect 1 to 2.5 inches of rainfall for western Kenai, Anchorage, and the Matu. Valley through Sunday. So with greater accumulations and higher elevations, two to five inches are expected in the Susitna Valley, and two to six inches are expected in the eastern Canine.
Peninsula and Prince William Sound. Storm debris should be kept clear of debris as much as possible. You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible flood warnings those living in areas prone to flooding so this is everywhere should be prepared to take action should flooding develop following areas where specifically, so this is beyond Kenai, specifically areas that are
in potential flood watch areas. Anchorage, East Turnagan Arm, Mat-Su Valley, North Prince William Sound, South Prince William Sound, Susitna Valley, Western Kenai Peninsula, and Western Prince William Sound. This includes the city We have Anchorage, Eagle River, Indian, Eklutna, Girdwood, Portage, Palmer, Wasilla, Sutton, Chickaloon, Kenai, Saldatna, Homer, Cooper Landing, Whittier, Steward, Moose Pass, Valdez, Thompson Pass, Cordova, Tauquina.
and Willow. The flood watches in effect from Friday morning through Monday morning. Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying, flood-prone locations. Flooding may also occur in poor drainage in urban areas.
This flood watch is excessive. I mean, it's basically all of South Central. I mean, all the pack up in the mountains is definitely going to be melting with the temperatures we got down here. I know, I think it was yesterday. Maybe it was the day before. by Campbell Creek. Oh yeah, that thing was, that water was up on that thing. And I was thinking exactly that. Ooh, somebody's gonna get some basement flooding.
Yeah, I will tell you, there's a couple areas that I drove by yesterday. You can tell the city of West Silla, there was one area over by Family Diner where I saw, you know, a bunch of standing water. So I just assumed there was a storm drain plugged right over there. But you're going to see this in different locations, especially in neighborhoods where you potentially have culverts that might be plugged.
If you see a culvert in a neighborhood that is plugged, I recommend you contact your local road service area or your local government, and usually they will dispatch crews to go out there and unplug those culverts. In the municipality of Anchorage, it's street maintenance.
And they have a problem reporter in the Mat-Su borough. Again, they have a problem reporter. You can contact the streets as well. And they will get it to the right person. There's a lot of areas out here in the Mat-Su that have road service areas. So, you know, it can be tricky if you get confused and you're not sure. You can always contact your local assembly person. They should be able to get you to the right number. All right. It is Reform Friday, which means... Did you do schools by chance?
Oh, you know what? I didn't do schools. Why don't you do that? I just let people know in the Mat-Su borough, regions 5 and 6, the schools are closed for today. That is 5 and 6 due to icy conditions. All region 5 and 6 schools are closed. includes all northern schools in the Houston, Big Lake area, as well as Talkeetna. That's from the Matsuburo School District's page. This has been the weirdest non-winter we've had.
Like, honestly, no snow. I mean, who would have thought in Alaska? You know, this winter has been virtually, I mean, we've had, it's been rain and ice, and I'd much rather take two feet of snow over Over a rain and ice. Oh, 100%. Well, at least snow you can walk in, even though it might be a struggle. Ice? Nah, man. You're going to be on your back. I've been there already.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. It's just one of those tricky, it's a tricky year. It is Reform Friday, though, and I have taken a pre-look at most of the local government pages, and I'm not seeing any public meetings today. notice for today so it looks like uh
Everybody's pretty well quiet on the local government front. But if you'd like to call in and talk about whatever you want to talk about today, we have a whole bunch of topics that we can talk about. I have a ton of news of stories that I've pulled, different topics. This has been the most busy week. When it comes to potential stories, and I think we've covered 10% maybe of them, there's just been so many things that have gone on. From Donald Trump speaking at Davos, he spoke virtually.
be honest with you i watched a good portion of his speech yesterday and i was very busy i didn't get home last night until I don't know, 8.30? So I didn't have time to pull audio clips, but his speech at Davos, like, look, Donald Trump ain't playing. I mean, he literally...
in front of Davos told them that, you know, the Green Dune Deal was a scam, that the United States isn't doing this nonsense. We pulled out of the Paris Climate Change Accord because it was, you know, bad for America and ridiculous. I mean, he really had some good sound bites in the World Economic Forum. Oh, and he shut them down. I mean, literally. Address. Like silence from them.
he went after bank of america directly he called out bank of america for for canceling republicans uh bank accounts and stop you know and uh you know i mean i gotta be honest with you like He ain't playing. He ain't playing, and he's not pussyfooting around when it comes to, you know, comments. He's not trooping around the tulips. He's not pretending. He's not tiptoeing around.
when it comes to his commentary and his intent to make America great again, to really, you know, usher in this golden age of revitalization for America our economy our energy dominance not just independence our energy dominance like he's like you know what We're done being the piggy bank of the rest of the world and getting a whipping post in exchange. Like, he made it very clear. It was fantastic. It was sensational. It was so great.
So, I might see if I can pull some... audio clips over the weekend but i just didn't have time to do it last night but it was great but he like he means business there's no doubt about it and uh so that's why i say there's there's been so much that has happened from the presidential level on the federal level
I mean, you just can't get to all the stories. So I have a ton of stories that we can get to. But, of course, this is Freeform Friday. So it will be really, you know, peppered in. My stories will be peppered in with what. what callers want to talk about. So that's kind of today's agenda.
So let's do this. Let's take our first break of the morning. And then as soon as we come back, we're going to go straight to the phones. If you'd like to call in, be part of the conversation, 522-0650. We'll be right back. Amy Demboski, 6 to 8, mornings on NewsRadio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Good morning, Current Time 619 on this glorious Friday morning.
Oh, my goodness, Daryl. I'm so glad it's Friday. You know, 522-0650, if you'd like to call in and be part of the show, of course, it's Freeform Friday, my favorite day of the week. I love to hear what is on people's minds. So we are going to go straight to the phones, and we are going to start. with Randy. Good morning, sir. Well, good morning, Mr. Sunshine and Daryl. I have to really hand that off to you guys. You work, both of you guys work tirelessly.
It was great content on your radio show. We try. We try. It was great seeing you and Susan last night, by the way. Yes, that's what I want to talk about. First off, the liberty. What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? What do you call a sleeping dinosaur? I don't know what. Z-Rex. Z-Rex. All the Zs. Solid dad joke. Love it. All right. Well, what's on your mind this morning? I really enjoyed the meeting last night. Very educational. And we had input. I mean, not input.
We received information from both Palmer, Wausau, and the borough, because we had representatives from there. And it was so nice to see young people there and children. In fact, he was so funny. I wouldn't call it. I don't know. Victoria Hudson, the council member. From Palmer. Yeah. She picked up a young child. and uh made a child i wouldn't say major to the child uh that was very uh made it very comfortable enjoying the reading because i know an individual child
That young, well past his face. But anyway, heads off to her. Yeah, it was a great meeting. So what Randy's talking about for those that didn't hear yesterday's meeting, the Valley Republican Women's Club yesterday had their membership meeting last night. And there was a great presentation by Ken McCarty.
on the effort to repeal ranked choice voting and what they're doing. And then there were multiple updates. There was Dmitry Fonoff was there, and he gave us an update from the Matu Borough. Ian Crafton was there. He gave us an update from the city of Westzilla. Victoria Hudson was there, and she gave us an update from the Palmer City Council's perspective, what they were doing, kind of efforts. And then Tom Berge was there to give us an update from...
the perspective of what's going on at the Mat-Su School District. So it was a very informative meeting, I thought, and it was great to see so many of my friends there. You know, you and Susan were there. I saw the Millers. I saw the trainees. I saw a whole bunch of my friends there. So it was really great to see neighbors and people that are engaged wanting to know what is going on, you know, across them at Subaru. So it was awesome.
Yes, indeed. Hope to see you next time. All right, my friend. I was going to say, what else you got? Is that it? That's it. All right. Well, have an awesome weekend, and we'll talk to you soon. Okay. Bye. All right. Bye-bye. You know, Daryl, I think that's kind of the fun of having a local radio show because, you know, it doesn't matter where I'm at. I can be at Costco and people will stop me. I can be, you know, go out to dinner and somebody will.
be like hey Amy and I love it when people say hi to me yesterday I was in my office and I hear this voice going Amy And I look up, and there was a guy that came into the senior center. And he just walks up. He's like, I just have to. He's like, Amy. and i look at him and he just starts doing the trump dance and he's like and i just i just died laughing like it was so funny because and i he totally made he made my day i'm not going to out who it was but he
Totally made my day. But that's what I say. And, you know, it was so great because. I had last week, I had a caller, and I'm not sure how old Peter was. I would guess Peter was probably in his 80s, maybe close to 90. I'm not sure. He came into the senior center with his son last week. Yeah, it was last week.
And he had a couple, you know, political commentaries for me. But he says he listens to the show every single day. And he got his picture with me. And he just, you know, he gave me words of encouragement. And it was wonderful. And those are just the, it's part of the reason I love doing the show. It's because people want somebody here from Alaska who, you know, that kind of, you know, just says it like it is. They love it. You're relatable. I appreciate that. Because, you know, again, we just...
We just want common sense. We want to have a conversation relating to common sense. And it's amazing sometimes how uncommon that is. So one thing to let you know, see, you're very recognizable also. I mean, literally, it's very easy to say, oh, my gosh, that's Amy.
I have the advantage. Nobody knows what I look like. They know what my voice sounds like. And, you know, I run into that a lot. People hear me. I try to keep my mouth shut when I'm out and about in the world. Yeah. But that's the thing. Now, question. When he did the Trump dance, is it the new sword dance? No, it was the YMCA typical, you know, back and forth. It was pretty awesome. All right. Well, I have to tell you, my day is about to be sensational because everybody knows I absolutely.
Absolutely love it when Eric calls because Eric always always has great jokes and you know, I got I'm building it up Let's see. He cannot disappoint. There's it's just not possible Let's go to the phones. Eric, good morning, my friends. Oh, the pressure, the pressure. Oh, God. And here I was just wanting to start your Friday off well. Oh, well, I've got to tell you. You know, I have been saving a joke for you for two weeks. But I'm not going to do my joke first. I'm going to do...
Look, the floor is yours, my friend. All right. Well, I'll start off with a joke. Well, I don't know if you'd call it a joke more than a question. So if a dairy cow doesn't produce milk, Is that considered an utter failure or a milk dud? I vote for utter failure. I vote for utter failure. Okay, okay, that one is definitely getting repeated. One of my cleaner ones.
I love it. I love it. Yeah. So you were talking, obviously, we can't go without discussing this horrible streets and ugly, wet, freezing, thawing. nasty weather. So this weekend I'm actually flying to some place with snow. Houston, Texas. You know, it's kind of crazy. Houston, Pensacola, parts of Louisiana, they got snow in Anchorage. It's like...
Rain, rain, rain. It's crazy. I got to admit, you got to admit, they're going to use the same snow removal method that our new mirror is used. You know, just like let it melt and turn to ice. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Right. You know, I'm going down. We'll be gone for about three weeks, going down to see some family and then take a cruise out of Galveston. So I will be going to get my nice, warm sweat on.
Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, Jamaica, Roatan. Oh, I'm so jealous. I hope you come back all sweated out. Oh, my husband's been trying to get me to go to Galveston. I've not been. You know, obviously I was in San Antonio. And I did tech school in Wichita Falls, so I love Texas, but I've never been to Galveston. Yeah, and I've been to San Antonio for a while.
Yeah, nice. Very solid. Yeah, I love that here. San Antonio, farther south down Corpus, then, of course, Houston. Yeah. I wouldn't move back to Houston, though. If I had to move back to Texas, I think it'd be Corpus Christi. Oh, yeah. Yeah, plenty to do, but you don't have the hustle and bustle that you do in Houston. So anyway, I just wanted to call and say.
You know, hello, you guys are doing great, and you won't be hearing from me for about a month or so. Well, we will be thinking about you. We hope you have fun. I'm going to leave you with my joke. Are you ready for it? Please do. Okay, I've got to hear. Okay, go ahead. Last week, I think it was... I don't know if I came in at the end of it. You and...
Daryl were discussing some joke that Daryl was saying, no, you can't say that on the air, but you wanted to tell Eric. Oh, you're in luck. You're in luck. This is a joke. This is the joke. We have negotiated a truce, which is I can say it in the 6 o'clock hour. Okay. All right? And so I've been saving this one. Okay, so here's the thing.
So these three nuns are driving down the road in a car, and bam, they get hit by a semi. All of them die. They ascend to heaven. They get stopped, though, at the pearly gates, and St. Peter says, wait, wait, wait a second. You ladies should know the answer to these questions. There's going to be a quiz. You know, you're held to a higher standard. So St. Peter looks at the first nun, and he says, all right, here's your question. Who did God create?
to keep Adam company. And the first nun says, oh, that was Eve. Correct. You can go ahead and go in. He looks at the second nun and he says, OK, where did Adam and Eve live? and she says the garden of eden he says correct you can go ahead and go in he looks at the third nun and he says mother superior now your question is going to be a little more difficult What was the first thing that Eve said when she saw Adam? Mother Superior looks at him and, that's a hard one. Correct. You can go in.
That's an Eric joke. I'm totally telling it. So we negotiated at the 6 o'clock hour. You're welcome. I was willing to negotiate. And Eric, I just want to say one last thing. Podcast. And cell phones. You can listen to us and you can call us even on vacation. Even if it's just to tease us and say, you know, it's...
And so, just let you know. Yeah, I forgot about that. I won't be able to do it while I'm out there on the ship, but yeah, I will be able to do it while I'm visiting family. Well, I hope you have an awesome trip, and you guys have a chance. to unplug and just have time to enjoy each other and enjoy family. Oh, thank you guys. And thank you for saving the joke for me, Amy. All right. Have a wonderful weekend and take care until I talk to you again.
All right, you too. All right, bye-bye. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be right back. Reach out to Amy now, 907-522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Demfoski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back. Current Time 636 on this glorious Friday. It is Freeform Friday. So if you'd like to call in and be part of the show, whatever's on your mind, that's what we're going to talk about. 522-0650.
all right let's start with uh let's see let's go to jd first good morning jd good morning amy um morning daryl thanks for taking my call um I kind of wanted to just be quick. I called in earlier this week, and another caller called in and wished me well and prayed for me. I just wanted to shout out. I was going to say their name, but they know who they are. Thank you very much, and I just wanted to say thanks.
for that kind word um you know just the show because it seems like we're all kind of kind of like a little i don't know if i want to say family you know but you know we all like to listen friends and neighbors to each other and friends and neighbors everything you know Are you home now? I'm just being nosy now. Are you home yet? Yeah, hell yeah. I had surgery earlier this week. They do this thing where they do robots, so it's very precise.
I was lucky this time. People of faith, they've been praying for Christians. All these experiences I had, you know, and the lady on the show called in.
She wished me well. To fellow believers, it's like, hey, this is our faith. And maybe to someone who's listening, maybe you're not a believer. The Bible says you can tell that they're Christians by the way they... treat each other right and so there's a perfect stranger that person doesn't know me they called in they're like hey there's a guy you know somebody who's you know when the bible also says it's like
You know, visit people in jail, visit people who are sick, you know, feed people who need, you know, food and, you know, clothe people who need clothing. That's one of the four big ones. Yeah. It's just really nice. I just appreciate the show and you guys. First of all, to call in and voice our opinions. I appreciate it very much. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I've said this a lot of times.
I think it's really important to have a venue where the community can kind of get together and share their opinions. And, you know, sometimes we're going to disagree. Sometimes we're going to agree. But it's a place where we can exchange ideas and lift each other up. And I just appreciate the opportunity. to be part of it.
Thank you very much for listening, and thank you for calling in and sharing your opinions on topics, too, because without your voice and the voice of others, it would be pretty boring, to be honest. Well, there's such a lot of good callers to your show. It's such a good listener base. The collars are interesting to listen to. Oh, I guess I got a joke, too. Oh, I love it.
I love it. I was just going to say real quick here. You reminded me of something that I have not thought of in a long time. And I absolutely thank you for it because I'm going to be singing a song in my head all day long now. When you said that they will know we are Christians and it brought the. song they will know we are christians by our love by our love literally i'm gonna have that song in my head all day i love that song i haven't thought of it in forever thank you jd
Well, that sounds good. I didn't even hear it, but I'm going to get a little catchy, too, and I'm going to catch that, too, and remember that through the day. So thank you, Darren. I love it. All right. You got a joke for us? Yeah, and I might have even shared it before, but it's one of my favorites, and it's a clean one, you know? So it's like, all right. So what do the insomniac agnostic dyslexic do? What? The insomniac...
Agnostic. Dyslexic. What does the insomniac agnostic dyslexic do? Well, he doesn't sleep with God. Well, close. Amy? I don't know. He stays up all night wondering if there really is a dog. Clean. I love it. See, you're raising the quality of the show already from my joke to yours. Oh, well, I've heard that one before. That's a gold standard right there.
That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. I love it. Well, I hope you have an awesome weekend, J.D. Thanks for calling in this morning. Happy Friday. You too. I've got to tell you, we have the best callers. All right, let's go to Jerry. Jerry is with us this morning. Good morning, sir. Good morning, ma'am. Thank you. I have a sick joke for you. Lisa Murkowski.
We need to pray for her a whole lot. I mean, her mailbox is full. You can't get a hold of her or any of her staff. And right now I'm visiting down in the south. East Wyoming. And people really laugh at you when you hear about Alaska. And Lisa Murkowski, because they got rid of theirs down here. It's a sad situation is what she's doing to our country. Oh, I know. I know. So for those that don't know, Lisa Murkowski came out yesterday and said she's going to be a no vote on Pete Hegseth.
And I've had a lot of people texting me about it and giving me questions and saying, you know, This is Lisa Murkowski, and this is what I expected Lisa Murkowski to do. Look, I expect her to vote no on multiple of these nominations. You know, she has such a double standard because she just rubber-stamped the Biden, you know, cabinet members. But when it comes to the Republicans, like, it's just infuriating to me.
You know, in some of her comments, she said, you know, she talked about, I have the Must Read Alaska article in front of me, and it says right here, She said, I commend Pete Heggs' service to our nation, including leading troops into combat and advocating for veterans. However, these accomplishments do not alleviate my significant concerns regarding his nomination.
of defense requires vast experience, blah, blah, blah. She goes on and on and on. And then she goes on to say, she basically says, although he has recently revised his statements on women in combat since being nominated, I remain concerned about the message that confirming Mr. Hegseth sends to women currently serving and those aspiring to join.
Women have served our nation with distinction overcoming immense obstacles to excel in combat and leadership roles, and they deserve to know that their leaders honor and value their commitment to our nation. Okay, so what is she talking about? Pete Hegseth has been critical about women. in combat roles. And I will tell you this. As a female who served in the military, I'm not offended by his comments at all. In fact, I agree with him. Amen.
I mean, and so, you know, it is offensive to me as a female who has served in the United States military. I was in the Air Force. For somebody who has served. Somebody who has not served like Lisa Murkowski, lady, you don't speak for me. You don't know what it's like to put on a uniform or combat boots, so just back the heck off. Back off. You don't know what you're talking about. Like, there's a reality. When I went through basic training, they do have...
two different sets of physical requirements in the Air Force when I went through. They had one set for men and one set for women. And I personally was like, oh, heck no. If I'm going to put the uniform on, I'm going to make the men's standard. And I aspired. and hid it. But I was only one of a few women in my flight that actually was able to qualify under the Men's Times.
I mean, that's the reality. And if you pretend there's not a double standard, you're ignorant. And so that's why I just go back to, I think there is a time and a place, and I think we do have to recognize some physical differences and nuances, especially when it comes to comes to women in combat roles. I think the standard should be the same at a minimum. It should be the same at a minimum.
Otherwise, what are we doing? I mean, DEI, there's no place for DEI in the military. I don't think there's any place for DEI in law enforcement. I don't think there's any place for DEI in firefighting. I mean, there's some careers that it... It legitimately takes a physical presence to be able to do the job. And if you can't do the job, you shouldn't be doing the career.
Can I make a real quick comment in here also about this? So one of her things, as you said, she felt it was insulting to women, right, that he was doing that. And yet this is the same person who voted against the amendment in the American Rescue Plan for... only allowing women in women's sports? She voted for trans to be allowed into women's sports. How is that? I mean, she also voted for Rachel Levine. She allowed Rachel, a trans, to be put in there. That's taking away from women.
an insult to women. I don't know what is. You know what's an insult? It's an insult to Republicans that she calls herself a Republican. I mean, look, and I've had friends that are independents and Democrats just be honest with us about where you really stand on the political spectrum. That's what the voters want. They just want to know. And so, again, when it comes to Lisa Murkowski.
Over the years, I have gotten into the position where I just expect to be disappointed. I expect that she's going to side with the Democrats. I expect that she's not... You know, she's going to be a thorn in the side of every conservative, especially Trump, because it's clear there's an obvious disdain there. It's clear. So I don't care if Pete had Seth before he, you know, found Jesus. I don't care if...
If he had an affair on his wife, I don't care if after he comes back from combat, he maybe, you know, hit the bottle. You know, there's a lot of people in this world that have, yes, that have struggled. with alcoholism or have struggled with PTSD, especially after they come back from combat. And the fact that you're going to weaponize potentially that against him.
You've never walked a mile in her shoes. Tell me the last time that you were on the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan, and you have to live with that, and you have to live with seeing your comrades, your buddies in arms, getting their heads up. Heads blown off. Explain to me, Lisa. Now you're critical because maybe Pete Hegseth has had to deal with that. Like, to me, her whole comments were offensive. And I will...
outwardly say, I've never seen combat. I was not interested in seeing combat. That was not what I was, you know, I went into the military under an open enrollment, and I said, I will do whatever my government wants me to do. Like, I wanted to be law enforcement. That's what I really wanted to do. But the career field was overstacked when I went in. But I was in tip-top.
top like shape like I had just fought in a state taekwondo tournament I was very I was like at the peak of my like like my physical prowess when I went in and and and I still recognized my limited physical ability to compare to the men that I joined with. And I just thought, I'm not going to do, no, I'm going to do something else. And so I ended up going into the medical field when I was in the military.
Again, I think, Jerry, you've hit something, the nail on the head. I think Lisa Murkowski, I think today there's a lot of Alaskans that are very disappointed in Lisa Murkowski. In the whole country. Yeah, yeah. Well, sir, thank you for your call this morning. I appreciate you teaming up the topic. We've got to do something to get rid of her is what we are organized to do.
I know. I think step one is repealing rank choice voting because then she'll be forced to go into a Republican primary or she'll be forced to re-register as a different party. That'll be her choice. So I think step one. Repeal rank choice voting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. All right. Have an awesome weekend. All right. We're going to take a quick break. If you'd like to call in 522-0650. Now back to the boss.
Amy Demboski. Call 907-522-0650 and be a part of the show on News Radio 650. KENI. Welcome back. You know, Daryl, I was thinking about this during the break, and there are so many instances where we just have never walked a mile in somebody's shoes. And I guess I get so offended with politicians.
Because we have these people that sit in their ivory tower and they look down and judge. And when it comes to our first responders, when it comes to our military veterans, people that have seen active combat roles, been in very traumatic... situations and they look down on them like oh well you know 15 years ago you did this this you have no idea what these people have been through
And the reality is the majority of us in our businesses, when these politicians would be put in front of us, look, I've got to be honest with you. I've worked with a lot of them. I know a lot of them. There's a large majority of them that are mediocre. They are not the shining star. They are not the biggest. They are not the ones we would hire. They're certainly not the ones we would go to combat with.
So when we start hearing, you know, politicians sit from their ivy tower, and Lisa Rakowski does not speak for female veterans. I'm telling you that right now. As somebody who served in the United States Air Force, you know, and I... She doesn't speak for me She doesn't speak for me I guarantee I know other females that have served and that have served in more extensive roles than I have, and they are not fans of Lisa Murkowski. So when she starts talking about women veterans,
Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. You haven't been there How can anybody realistically, Daryl, argue that there should not be the same physical standard required for all combat troops? How can you argue against that? You can't. You literally can't. It's illogical. And so I look at it and I think, you don't know what you're talking about. You know, if now we have to lower standards to now get a certain demographic to be able to qualify
then I would say we have a problem as well. That's the DEI. That's that DEI. It's ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous. And I look at it and I'm like, okay, if you can't define what a woman is, Houston, we have a problem. If you're supporting lowering standards to make sure that women can qualify for combat role, look, I know female firefighters that are bad. They're amazing.
I won't say the A word, but you know what I'm saying? They are just like the cream of the crop. Like, I wouldn't mess with them. Most dudes wouldn't mess with them. And they are amazing and can do the job, but that's how it should be. You should have the same standard. for whatever career field you're coming into, especially when we're talking about first responders and we're talking about military. The standards shouldn't change.
Because of your gender. So it's actually a serious disrespect. And well, not just because listen to this. Think about this. You have a lower standard, okay? I'm just pointing things out. A lady has a lower standard on how much weight she has to be able to list, how fast she has to run, and these things. And you get into combat, and everybody else is faster and stronger than you.
That puts you at a disadvantage. We have now put you in a situation where we've disadvantaged you and literally... Not just you, your whole unit. Your team. Right? Because you're only as strong as your weakest link when you go into battle. And so what we're doing is we're saying, you know what, it's okay, we're going to make it that. We are literally putting people who aren't qualified and able to do something, and there are those, again, there are those who are.
but they are not the majority, they are not the norm, okay? So we are literally We're tying one hand behind their back to start with. Yeah, it's offensive. It's the same reason why I completely disagree when it comes to affirmative action type quotas. When you say... You say somebody, oh, because they are female or because they are black or because they're Hispanic, they need to be treated differently.
That's offensive. I mean, it's offensive. You think because of my gender, I'm not as smart, I'm not as capable as a man? Or you think because somebody's black, they're not as smart, they're not as capable? as somebody else i mean this is the problem with people you know whether it is different affirmative actions you know trump's getting a little bit of slack because um he is revoking johnson's 1965 executive order 11246.
which was launched forever, but it was basically a de facto racial quota system, right? It's really a euphemism for affirmative action. And the reality is what he's saying is, no, no, no, no. No longer are we going to be in this quote de facto quota system. We're going to hire people on merit. And that's how it should be in the military. That's how it should be in federal hiring. That's how it should be in law enforcement. That's how it should be.
be in firefighting i don't care what we're talking about at the end of the day if you hire the best you get the best outcomes can i get one last comment in here before we head to this final break when you are hiring somebody to be our head of our department of defense
Do you want somebody who's never seen combat in there or somebody who actually has felt the pain of loss and will be more hesitant to send your sons and daughters and husbands and wives into combat or somebody who's just like, yeah.
Send another 10,000. I'm sorry. You're right. I want Pete, who's already going, yeah, no, I don't want to see these guys out there. Exactly. I want a real warfighter who understands what it means. And he is lethal. He will send it if you need it. We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back. The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeart Media or its employees. Thank you for listening to NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back to Hour 2 of the Amy Domboski Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. Right here on 650 a.m. if you're listening to the radio. Or you can stream us live. We stream live on our website, 650keni.iheart.com. Or, of course, you can download the iHeart Media app. You can find us on...
podcasting platforms as well, like Spotify. You can find us on the iHeartMedia app. Of course, the podcast is also listed on our website. So there's lots of places you can listen. So if you're not an early riser, don't fret. You can still hear us on repeat and uh of course you know some people some people i think maybe just listen for the jokes but other people you know you just i know why the politicians listen because you never quite know what's going to come out of my mouth
That's a very good reason to listen. And also remember, if you're on vacation or out on a boat, you can't always download our podcast and listen to us or listen to us live. And there's a cool thing called cell phones and satellite phones. You can always call us from there, too. There you go. There you go. All right. Well, joining the show now, friend of the show, she is a woman who is extraordinary all in her own right. Not only is she an awesome conservative, a mom, a patriot.
But she's also a published author. It is Ms. Lee Sloan. Good morning. Hello, Amy. How are you today? I am fantastic. You know, Lee, I think about some of the most important issues that we face. And you have been a champion of one of them, and that is ensuring that our kids get a great education. And you just haven't let up on this one. This is something that has been, I think, a passion of yours for a long time.
Yeah, actually, it's been a passion of mine since I went to the Los Angeles Unified School District. and experienced a lot of negativity. And then I was able to go to a private school and it changed my life. So that's one of the reasons that I'm passionate about it. And yeah, and I've just found myself in this school choice movement. A lot of other people are passionate about it now, and so I'm just kind of riding the wave nationally. It's a huge thing.
Oh, absolutely. What is going on here in Alaska when it comes to the school choice movement? Well, for the past, let's see, we're on our fourth year of the National School Choice Week. has funded our event, our flagship event for the state. And so we've had an event that celebrates school choice. It's kind of like a vendor fair. You can come and check out all the resources that Alaska has to offer here in Anchorage.
This year we're having it at the Alaska Native Heritage Center tomorrow, starting at 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. We have over 50 vendor tables, around 50 vendor tables spoken for, and so we're just filling up that whole place this year. And we have guest speakers. This year, actually, in the past, I've just done it myself and some friends. And now we have a nonprofit. This is the first year we actually have a nonprofit called Alaska School Choice.
And so we're going to try to do more. We're actually developing a website, a searchable database where you can find all of the educational vendors that you need to access in the state. We're still working on that, but you can check out our preview of it.
on elastascoolchoice.com and we're also looking to give out some private scholarships so as we're raising money you know as non-profits do we're going to try to open up more scholarships for things that maybe the allotments don't cover that the state doesn't cover just to open up more choices for Alaskan families.
So as we start talking about school choice in Alaska, if people, you know, I know until your kids start going through the school, you know, maybe you don't have firsthand experience, but there is a vast array of school choice in what that is. means because maybe not every parent really
you know, understands or has experience with like homeschool options. What does that mean? Do I need to be an English major to be able to execute a homeschool option? I mean, these are kind of some of the basic questions that a lot of people ask. people will have, what kind of options do we actually have here in Alaska? Yeah, homeschooling is not what it used to be at all. You know, it's actually not even at home most of the time. So in Alaska, we're unique in that.
We have an allotment program that a lot of people know about, but some don't. And you can enroll in a charter school and then get allotment funds to pretty much... anywhere you want to use your funds. Like if you want to have a private tutor, if you want to go get classes, like I have something called the Green Room Learning Community where we have small group classes there. And so you can...
You know, you can get out and have an education. You don't even need to have the training as the parent. You can just help, you know, your other, the other tutors, you know, you can just have them do the homework from them, you know. So it's really, it's easier than ever before. But, you know, as you know, the allotment program was threatened recently. And we saw a huge uprising of families because I think it's between like 22 and 24,000 families.
or students access those allotment funds. So that's a huge deal for us in Alaska because it's really our only method of school choice right now, one of the few methods of school choice because other programs. or in other states. But yeah, so it's the one way that we can access the funding that we need for different kinds of things. You know, I've been a big proponent of the concept that...
You know, one size doesn't fit all, especially when it comes to education and students. I mean, some students will excel in a traditional brick and mortar, and other students will excel in unique programs, whether it is, you know, whether it is an aversion program, a charter school program, a homeschool option. I mean, there's just so many, there's such a vast array that I think could fit different children and different families. And I think the event that...
that you guys have going on tomorrow from 11 to 2 at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. I think that's a great start if somebody is looking for options for their child or thinking about you know, what options are even out there. I think it's probably a good place to start, would you guess?
Yes, absolutely. I've even had people call me going, what do I do? Where do I go? And I said, come to the thing. Come to the thing on Saturday and you'll be exposed to all kinds of new ideas. And it is a lot to take in at first, but there's just... a whole plethora of things. And I think if parents are exposed to the idea that they can choose, they're going to make better choices. They're going to get better informed.
And that's what we're trying to do as Alaska School Choice is inform people of their choices. Because I live by people, you know, right next door who don't even know that you can do different things. You know, it's kind of an antiquated idea that we have to go to one.
neighborhood school and that we have to you know that that was like in the industrial age when they thought of that idea you know and so now nowadays it just doesn't make sense to just have one choice and i think alaskans inherently know that And so that's why they're demanding the right to choose. And actually, I will tell you, I'm excited because we have our first actually brick-and-mortar traditional public school join us this year.
And it's Tudor Elementary. They've actually decided that they want to join us. So, you know, it's public, private, everywhere in between. And, you know, I'm glad that we can unite the community this way because we're not anti-public. It's so funny, too, because we have conversations about charter schools, and most people don't realize those are still public schools.
Absolutely. To me, that's why I say, look, some kids will excel in traditional programs and other kids will excel in immersion programs or homeschool options. It's not necessarily every kid is at your kitchen table. Sometimes it's, you know, it's parents and families that come together. And like you said, there's places. A lot of times homeschool is not your traditional homeschool, what people would think about. And so, no, you don't.
You don't have to be a whiz or have a PhD in English to be able to homeschool your child. There are resources out there to make sure your child is going to get a stellar education. It just may not be in the way that maybe we learned. Exactly, yeah. There's just so much more out there than people think. So I would encourage you to check it out and explore. Explore all the options. If you're not satisfied with your current educational experience there, There are better options out there.
Fantastic. Well, Lee Sloan, can you give us the website one more time so if people want to do a little recon before the event tomorrow at the Alaska Native Heritage Center from 11 to 2, if they want to do a little recon on the web, how do they find the website? that information. Alaska School Choice.
And you can support there. We can actually ask to volunteer. We're going to be having things going on throughout the year now since we're a nonprofit now. So love to have your support and just come join us and check it out. Awesome. Thank you so much. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you that Senator Kelly Hughes is our guest speaker as well.
Oh, fantastic. So she'll be there to talk about it. That's fantastic. Well, you know, Lee, you guys are doing such great work, and I think this is just going to gain more and more momentum. We've seen the popularity of alternate school options, you know, educational type of options.
in delivery of that education and and we've seen often times I mean I remember we had dr. Dina Bishop on the show a few months ago and she was talking about a Harvard study that came out that talked about Alaska's charter schools the best in the nation I mean there really are some great
options here that maybe people haven't been exposed to. And so the first stopping point, if you go to alaskaskoolchoice.com, you'll find some information there. But then people can just go to the expo tomorrow from 11. to two and i'm sure ask a lot of questions and get get exposed to a lot of new information yeah yeah well i appreciate that awesome well lee thank you so much for calling in this morning i appreciate you All right. Well, have a great day.
All right, you too. That's Lee Sloan. Again, if you want more information, you can go on the website, alaskaskoolchoice.com, or you can pop by the Alaska Native Heritage Center tomorrow from 11 to 2. Of course, that's in Anchorage. You can just Google it, Alaska Native Heritage. and you'll be able to find the information. And you'll be able to find a ton of information about school choice options here in Alaska. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
You're listening to live, local, and always insightful Morning Drive Radio with Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Get on the show now by calling 907-5220. Welcome back. Current time. It is 7.20 on this Friday morning. Hopefully everybody's having a good Friday morning. Had a great week. The weekend is upon us. I will tell you, I'm watching Trump right now. He's already landed on the grounds in North Carolina.
Carolina are looking at hurricane recovery look you know he's only been president for five days and I mean he's the impact he's made already is amazing but I mean, he flat out said it. He said FEMA has not done their job in the last four years. I mean, he's just flat out said it. He's like, this is not acceptable. And so here we have Trump, you know, he's dealing with confirmations of his cabinet.
He's dealing with a foreign invasion on our southern border. He's dealing with inflation. He inherited an economy that was, I mean, obviously, it's difficult for most Americans to be able to afford... necessities like groceries he's dealing with you know international threats he's dealing with trade and tariffs and he's also dealing with massive massive wildfires in California and hurricanes that happened over 100 days ago that the Biden administration have been lackluster at best to respond to.
But here he is this morning. I'm watching him right now on TV. He just landed at the Asheville Airport in Fletcher, North Carolina. And he's like, look, we're here. The adults are in the room, America first, which means billions and billions of dollars of foreign aid.
Probably shouldn't be going out of the country unless we're taking care of Americans first. And he's making that very clear. Well, you know, we were talking a little bit earlier about Lisa Murkowski. Jerry brought it up. Lisa Murkowski coming out saying she's not going to vote for...
Pete Hegseth for the Secretary of Defense, but you can look at all the people she supported under the Biden administration. I would be hard-pressed to think of a nominee that she didn't support under the Biden administration for a cabinet pick. I can't think of one. educate me because I can't think of one you know it's interesting the Democrats are playing games with the the Trump confirmations they're going to do this they're going to continue to do this they're going to try to delay defer
They're going to try to sideline many of these people. Look, they're going to try to pick them off one by one. Peggy Hegg says the first one they're going to try to pick off. So who, of course, from the Republican... moniker has said they're not going to vote for Hagstaff it's Murkowski and Collins right
We can lose three, and then J.D. Vance could be a tie-breaking vote. But what you can't really count on is you don't know what Fetterman's going to do. He's a Democrat from Pennsylvania. Trump won Pennsylvania. is very politically aware of what is happening right now with the people in his state and the desire they want for change. So I don't think you can count him out. You don't know what he's going to do.
If you're just looking at Republicans, I still think Peggy Hegseth has a very good chance of getting confirmed. I think Murkowski, I never expected her to vote for Hegseth. I always said she would vote against him. Because I've been in here railing and railing. Consistently. I was like, I'm not even going to worry about it because she's going to be a no vote because Lisa Murkowski is truly, truly an undocumented Democrat. Oh, wow. I like that. You're welcome.
That's beautiful. I'll be borrowing that. Also, I think because yesterday when they did push for the cloiture vote, I think that signaled that the Senate knew they were going to be able to get him, maybe a tight squeak to get him through, but that they'd be able to get him through. It doesn't matter. All you need is 50 plus the vote. Vice President, and he wins. You know, but, you know, I said this the other day. So Democrats started playing games with the CIA director, too.
Marco Rubio flew through confirmation. No issue, right? Elise Stefanik, the ambassador to the UN, she's going to get confirmed. I don't think she's going to have an issue. You know, and I said this before, you know, John Radcliffe, he's the new CIA director. He used to serve in Congress. He has a background in intelligence. When you look at him, he is not somebody who is not going to, there was no question in my mind he was going to be confirmed.
The Democrats invoked this rule that maybe extended debate on him for 30 hours. And they're just, look, at this point, they're just being PIAs. That's all they're doing. Their attempt is just to slow things down. Like, this is D.C. is the typical nonsensical political garbage that you got to deal with right but John Radcliffe finally did get he got his vote yesterday and he was confirmed right and you know I got to point this out
Because we forget about this thing. Radcliffe did an exclusive interview. And he was talking about John Brennan, right, former CIA director. He says his tenure, John Brenner's, this literally, his tenure was one of the worst things that ever happened to the agency. He needs, why? Because John Brennan was from the Obama-Clinton-esque era. deeply politicized the CIA and weaponized it against his political rivals.
I mean, that's what happened. So President Donald Trump's newly confirmed CIA director, John Radcliffe, told Breitbart News exclusively that he views his mission as restoring the world's most preeminent intelligence agency to its core primary objectives. in undoing the lasting damage that one of his predecessors, John Brennan, did to the CIA. Here's a quote. It would be fair to say his tenure was one of the worst things that has ever happened to the agency is what he says.
He goes on to say there are challenges within the intelligence community and skepticism, I guess. It's because the American people saw examples of that. They saw the FBI misuse intelligence authorities at the FISA courts to spy on the...
Trump campaign they saw through that my declassification when I was DNI notes that The intelligence community knew in the summer of 2016 that Hillary Clinton had funded the Steele dossier, but yet it resulted in the FBI's crossfire hurricane and the Mueller investigation and the whole Russia collusion hoax.
They saw Brennan. Clapper that's James Clapper and others amplify this lie that Adam Schiff started about Hunter Biden's laptop being a Russian disinformation operation when everyone related to that did know and understand there was no intelligence that supported that. Ultimately, the FBI and Department of Justice use the laptop at the central piece of evidence in the prosecution of Hunter Biden and his guilty plea."
Here you have Radcliffe, who's now the new director of the CIA. He used to be National Intelligence Director. That's what DNI stands for, Department of National Intelligence. He knew they were lying. This is again. Again, the kind of crap that goes on in D.C. And this is why the American people don't trust the alphabet soup, right? When it comes from the federal government,
It's not trust but verify. It's like, hmm, prove to me that this is true first now because they have done irrevocable damage to many of these agencies. So here you have him. There was no question. No question Ratcliffe was going to get confirmed, but they were playing games with it. And I look at somebody like Brennan, who now Trump has jumped in, and Brennan has his security clearance, along with those other 50 intelligence people that signed the letter saying this has all.
the hallmarks of Russian disinformation when they all knew they were lying. But they were relying on their top security clearances, just the fact that people knew they had security clearances to give this lie credibility. Trump says no more no more if you prove yourself to be a liar
and weaponizing the intelligence agencies in which you are given the benefit of having a security clearance, if you're going to do that, you don't deserve a security clearance. So Trump has now revoked Brennan's security clearance. I absolutely agree. Look, the crowd here in the studios with me is all agreeing with it also. We think that's a phenomenal thing. I was going to say, this is a Democrat political hack. Deep state political.
Hack. Absolutely what he is. And the damage he has done to this agency, I don't know if it's repairable to be honest. It'll take years to repair their reputation because now the American people don't trust them because they see what happened since 2016. They see the weaponization not only of the Department of Justice, but of these intelligence agencies. And the damage now, now you have to get people to get past.
the the previous egregious behaviors and weaponization to trust you well when you've got that and also the way they did it so because because they put forward that the way their statement was is these have this has all the hallmarks This is really important. All the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. And so they never quote, and this is their argument. We never said it was Russian disinformation. We said it had all the hallmarks. Well, Mr. Brennan, a hallmark is a mark.
on an object, like say silver, that tells you that with this mark on it, this is guaranteed this percentage of this, of silver. It is your hallmark that tells you this is true and this is exact. If you told me that it has the hallmarks of it, That means you are guaranteeing to me that it is this. It is not a, well, it could be. That is what it is. And here's what it is. like your bs monitor right now is going why because exactly it's all the way it's all the way up because you know look
Words have meanings. In political speak, when we get lawyers yammering on and we hear politicians yammering on and we know they're playing word games in order to manipulate things, look, we all know what it is and Americans have cut to the chase
They've cut through the nonsense, and they've said, we know exactly. We don't care what specific. We know exactly what you're doing. You guys put this letter out knowing, in fact, the Hunter Biden laptop was accurate, was authentic, was true, and you're trying. You're trying to sway the American people to kill this story because you knew it was going to hurt Joe Biden in his election. That's what it is. It was political. It was obvious. And any word salad game.
that they played it didn't matter because at the end of the day everybody realized it Trump has now come out in an NBC article they have it reported and he talks about revoking Brennan's security clearance. He says first, at this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erotic conduct and behavior.
that conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him, Mr. Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility. In 2014, for example, he denied to Congress that CIA officials under his supervision had improperly accessed the computer files of congressional staffers. We know that turned out to be true. So he lied to Congress. He should be in jail for that.
He told the Council of Foreign Relations that the CIA would never do such a thing. The CIA's Inspector General, however, contradicted Mr. Brennan, directly concluding unequivocally that agency officials had indeed improperly accessed congressional staffers' files. More recently, Mr. Brenner told Congress that the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called Steele dossier in an assessment regarding the 2016 election.
an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community, and we know now from reports they use the Steele dossier to be able to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. So, again, when you turn out to be a liar, you should not have a security clearance. Look, I've got to be honest with you. You bounce a check, you're probably going to lose your security clearance. I mean, it's going to be a problem, right? I mean, the reality is.
If you have no longer a need to know, you should not have a security clearance. That's Amy's opinion. So all this whole past practice of letting everybody keep their security clearances and all this nonsense. Again, when they show a propensity to weaponize... The privilege given to them by having these security clearances against political rivals. I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. You probably shouldn't have it.
Period. The reason you have a security clearance is for defense of our national security. That's it. Right? That's it. It's really not that complicated. Now let's think about Lisa Murkowski for a minute. Hmm. Hey, Daryl. Did Lisa Murkowski vote to confirm John Brennan a CIA director? That would be a yay. Of course she did. Of course she did.
But here, instead of supporting Pete Hegstat, the combat veteran, character matters. Oh, but did it matter with John Brennan, who everybody knew was a political animal when he took the job? Did that matter then? Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. All right. Let's go ahead and take a quick break. We'll be right back. Amy Demboski, 6 to 8, mornings on NewsRadio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650.
Welcome back. Current time is 741. Hopefully everybody has had a great week and ready for an awesome weekend. Well, you know, it is interesting as we see Trump's Trump's. First week back in office as president, he has been very busy, no doubt about it. But, Daryl, I can't let this go by. I'm going to hit you out of left field with this one.
Daryl's story of the week on Friday, I always like to get to. Like I said, there's been so many stories. I feel like we've only been able to get to 10% of all the stories we've had prepped. But I would be remiss if I missed over.
Daryl's story of the week. What is on Daryl's mind? Wow, you did kind of catch me off guard on that, but I have I always have multiple stories that I'm looking at. I'm usually trying to figure out one of them was, of course, Lisa Murkowski, but for me right now, and I've been putting it off.
is the city of Anchorage and our government in the city of Anchorage. This is part of what is driving me nuts, and it's kind of like multiple things, because it's not just one, but let's start off with the most blatant elephant in the room, which is the ice elephant, the mammoth, okay?
People are saying out there, oh, man, you know, the mayor has done such a great job. This new administration has done such a great job on snow removal. Now, I'm getting that comment from... There's been no snow. There's been no snow. But Christopher Constant had this wonderful comment.
I'm pulling it up here because I wrote it down, I do believe. There we go. Christopher Costant had a post out there. Shows a picture of a road that's got gravel on it, you know, sand. And then the comment underneath it is... Telltale signs of a better managed winter city. OK, well, when I look at that picture, what I see is a it's a alley. OK, it's not one of the roads. It's an alley between the buildings. The road that that alley actually crosses.
is not sanded. So they've sanded an alley, and you can also see that the other side of the alley where it's sanded, it's only eight feet of it is sanded. Okay, so in other words, just for enough traction to get out on the unsanded main road. So I'm guessing that that's the same on the side that he's on. So I'm sorry, Chris, you needed to stage your photo a little bit better on that. But yesterday on my way home from Amy's show.
I'm going down Spenard Road, and in a three-block space, I see seven people turtled on the sidewalks. Now, people are saying, what is turtled? It's a flipped over person who was on their back with their hands and legs in the air trying to figure out how to get back on their feet. I literally saw seven people on their backs in the water on glaze ice.
Struggling with one person just getting about halfway up to their feet and sliding backwards down the hill that he was trying to climb up oh no well you know i will tell you this and we started the show talking about you know walking in some of these parking lots and and some of these uh streets because especially the side roads, right? Many, many of them are very, very icy. It seems like it's better when you get to the main roads. They're not that bad. But it is one of those...
really icy times a year. But I kind of chuckle because this is, I mean, honestly, for most mayors, I've said this before, when they do their snow removal budget, they usually budget for the average snowfall. So when you have those years with exponential snowfall over the average,
I don't care who it is, the mayor, every mayor gets criticized for it, right? Sullivan got criticized for it. Berkowitz got criticized for it. Whenever you have, you know, higher than average snowfall, they just don't budget for it. budget for the average that's how they do it because otherwise it takes more staff it makes things I mean
That's why they call it the average. But in the years where you don't have a lot of snowfall, it's fantastic because it totally saves you tons of money on your snow removal budget. But now you have to transition that to... Sand. Right, Terrell? So, and you said your street in Spenard has not been sanded at all this year. Not just my street. Multiple streets in Spenard that I travel down are residential streets. Now, Spenard itself, Spenard Road, it's dry. It's dry pavement. Yeah.
Actual residential streets have not seen a drop of sand from the city, okay? Because there are individuals who've thrown gravel in front of their own houses. So you'll be driving along, slipping, slipping, slipping, and all of a sudden it's like, whoa, traction. Oh, because somebody was kind enough.
to put gravel from their own driveway into it but the main side roads and and the picture with chris constant last week i was downtown i had to go downtown for for uh an event and i decided i was going to be smart because i didn't want to take the main streets because i knew the traffic was to be bad on them. So I decided I was going to go through the backside neighborhoods between 15th and 10th.
I almost didn't make it down those streets. There was so much glazed ice on them. Wow. And I'm in four-wheel drive in my car. I mean, I'm just going, okay, I made a bad choice, Daryl. You made a very bad choice. It's horrible out there. with the roads. So the roads were one part of it. My next issue that's going on out there is this wonderful ACCEE that they came up with. And Amy, you're good at acronyms. What's that acronym again?
Well, it's about the child care, the Anchorage, child care. I don't know what the EE is. I think that's education, child education, child care and education, something. I'd have to look it up again to get the full thing on it because. They kind of made it so it was hard to figure out what it is. But they've put that together. And this is being put together and run by, guess who? AQD. AQD. Austin Quinn Davison. But when you look at all the paperwork on it, somehow.
her name is like been removed from it, taken out. You can't tell, you know, it's just, it's QD this or, or the IT or all these other things. But when they got their budget out and this is where Mike, Mike. Tweet comes in, because this is going to become a complex. They're getting just over $5 million for their budget. And how are they spending their budget? Well, they're going to spend their budget by paying subsidies to pay for early educators' children's.
childcare. So in other words, the childcare workers, kids are going to get subsidized for their childcare. Okay. That's 2 million of it. That's half of it. The other 2 million of it is going to go to grants to the actual childcare facilities to. give raises to those same child care workers. See, here we go. Again, so the issue I really have here is
Is this the role of government? Government should do basic infrastructure. They should do infrastructure, public safety, and the Alaska Constitution says education, right? So when you look at that, but education is a primary. education. It's basically K through 12. But they keep trying to push this pre-K stuff. Look, they would love to have your kid from cradle to grave.
But this is mission creep. This is absolute mission creep, in my opinion. And they've called them. That's the thing is they've changed it. They're not child care specialists or any of those things that they used to be called. They are now called. Early educators. Of course. Because words, again, change the words because they're softening everything. Now, instead of just calling somebody a... man now they have to identify what's the sexuality you know a cisgendered man
I mean, everything they do is too snuff. You know, I love Trump. Trump is coming out. He's come out and said, no longer are we calling them undocumented. I saw DeSantis go after a reporter yesterday. to start talking about undocumented. They're illegal aliens. Trump is now going back to the previous terminology of calling them aliens. Illegal aliens. That's what they are. They're illegal aliens. Because, again, undocumented workers, that's code speak for illegal aliens.
And so, again, words have meaning. So now we're calling them, what are we calling them? Early education. Early educators. They're called early educators is what it is. So there we go. It's exhausting to me. It's exhausting to me. basic story of the week is is all of these things are going on in our city have you any of you heard of them through our local news agencies these people who literally crawled up the of our previous mayor to expose everything going on
not heard a word about it this is five million dollars with oh by the way a half a million dollars is going to be to uh administer that fund to take care of it you know the for the for the overhead for for overseeing it so you got a half a million covering that also
Sheer craziness. All right. Well, there's Daryl. As an Anchorage taxpayer, this is getting a spur in his saddle this morning. So I'm glad he shared it with us. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We have one segment left. If you'd like to call in, 522-0650. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back. Well, to end the show, I think we should do a little check-in and update to see what Nick Begich has been doing. And I'm looking at Mustard, Alaska right now. Suzanne has a story up from yesterday. Begich co-sponsors legislation to protect communities from wildfires. Congressman Nick Begich III has co-sponsored legislation to address the growing risk of catastrophic forest fires, a result in part due to forest mismanagement in California.
Remember that here's a quote from Congressman Begich from the devastation caused by the Malibu fires to the growing risks faced by countless communities across the nation. It's clear we are in the midst of a wildfire crisis. Years of mismanagement and bureaucratic delays have left our forests vulnerable and our communities exposed. I'm proud to support the Fix Our Forest Act.
as a decisive step towards addressing this urgent issue. This legislation provides the tools needed to manage our forests effectively, protect lives, and restore landscapes while creating much-needed jobs in rural areas, end quote. Forest Act streamlines permitting processes, streamlines forest restoration efforts, and forests...
and fosters economic growth in rural communities. The bill fact sheet highlights some failures of previous administrations. So again, simplifying and expediting environmental reviews will help. costs and planning times it'll actually get things done faster it'll promote federal state and tribal as well as local collaboration by creating a new fire shed center to codify the shared stewardship initiative.
stops frivolous litigation and endless agency consultations that delay needed forest management services. Gives agencies new emergency tools to restore watersheds, protect communities in wild and urban interface, and prevent forest conversion. Utilize state-of-the-art science to prioritize the treatment of forests at high risk of wildfire.
And it also will incentivize forest management projects of up to 10,000 acres to increase the pace and scale of addressing wildfire, drought, insect, and disease. Anybody who has heard of the spruce bark beetle will say that makes a lot of sense. So I think, you know, look, I've got to be honest with you. Nick Begich is kicking butt and taking names. Like he has not, there has been a fire lit under him from day one. he got down there and he has been rapid fire working and he look
All these issues he's dealing with are all issues that are important to Alaska. And so good on him. So our congressman is, let's just say he's not leading from behind. That is not happening with Nick Begich. Oh, no, he is doing awesome. And he's got a big, beautiful bear on his wall now also, which he's not. Yep, yep, he does. I was going to say, imagine that, a man that's manly. Hmm.
Loving it. Loving it. All right, that does it for Daryl and I for this week. Stay tuned. On deck is Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, followed by Sean Hannity at 11. And, of course, the great Mike Paccaro and Crash are live and local from 4 to 6. Daryl and I... We'll be back with you Monday morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless.